Two months ago we took in a 3 year old lab bitch. She hadn't had a great life before she came to us and was very timid and stuck to me like glue. She has now come out of her shell lots and is great with the kids and visitors and has even started playing with the other dogs. I take her to visit my grandad on a sunday as he loves labs, but at 85 isn't able to have one of his own, so he loves spending the day with her and she laps up the attention (and biscuits). The only problem we're still having with her is that she is so nervous of my OH. He's never shouted at her or told her off, and he has tried his hardest to be friends with her but she seems to be scared of him. Last night he called her name and she ran behind me with her tail between her legs and hid. I work two evenings a week so OH has the job of feeding the dogs on these nights and if i'm not in the house she won't touch her food, in fact she won't get out of her bed. She doesn't even like going out for walks with him. He cant let her off the lead as she will run away from him, so she walks beside him on the lead with her head down and her tail between her legs.

Any advise on how to over come this would be greatly appreciated as it is heartbreaking seeing her like this around my OH and he would love to be able to sit and snuggle up to her on a a night like i do.

Ally

Your OH needs to stop trying. With a nervous dog, the worst thing you can do is TRY to be friends, because it's putting pressure on the dog. Don't call her, don't expect anything of her, not even to take food out of a hand, even that can be too much. he needs to ignore her to prove he is no threat. It has to be entirely on the dog's terms initially, she has to come to your OH out of her own free will without any strings attached -and even a treat in a hand IS strings attached. So start very slowly (and expect a slow process -weeks if not months) with your OH not looking at the dog and just dropping treats on the floor -at first throwing them in her general direction without looking at her, then dropping them at his side etc. I honestly wouldn't have him walk her yet as that won't be a nice experience for her and could result in walks being avoided by her full stop.
Edited to say: the process really has to be super slow, once she has got to the stage of taking treats next to his feet on the floor then try treat from hand but DON'T get him to try to stroke her until she is 100 % comfortable with taking treats out of his hand, otherwise she will instantly take a big step back and think it was all just a trick to get to her.

Thanks, will tell him to ignore her from now on. I just cant understand why she is like this with him. She is fine with any other male that comes to the house or that we meet out on walks. I wonder if it stems back to her breeder as i have heard some bad things about him and the way he treats his dogs.